This Mind …
"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter."
--- Max Planck ---
Reality is a Prison
"…Ordinary reality is like a bad imitation, a cheap parlour trick in a grimy hotel, an eternally baited trap for the mind and senses. The gnostics had this much right: we're trapped in our bodies and we can't see our way out. The day-to-day world we create with our perceptions has no independent reality; it's all done with mirrors."
--– Clark Heinrich, Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion ---
A Talk with Death
Lezek, a well-intended but not too bright man is unaware that he is talking to Death:
“Where did you say your business was?” said Lezek. “Is it far?”
NO FURTHER THAN THE THICKNESS OF A SHADOW, said Death. WHERE THE FIRST PRIMAL CELL WAS, THERE WAS I ALSO. WHERE MAN IS, THERE AM I. WHEN THE LAST LIFE CRAWLS UNDER FREEZING STARS, THERE WILL I BE.
“Ah,” said Lesek, “you get around a bit, then.”
--- from Mort, by Terry Pratchett ---
Cherry Blossoms
The breath enters the body. The breath leaves the body.
His awareness rested softly on this rhythm as he drifted effortlessly through the curtain between waking and sleep.
He watched with quiet interest as the patterns behind his eyes became the pixels from which his dream senses erupted. He was always amazed by the perfect rendering of these three dimensional worlds. One moment it was just a pattern, and the next an entire world would spring to life all around him.
That was the most dangerous moment, much more difficult than making it through the sleep curtain with awareness intact. The dream worlds and his identities within them were so convincing in their detail that the moment they crystallized he would feel an almost inescapable pull to become lost in the story, and forget his other life in the waking world.
He was sure that if the stories of reincarnation were true, this was how they functioned. The pull of each new identity was so strong everything else was forgotten the moment it was assumed. He had known it intellectually before, but experiencing how it worked was completely different.
He relaxed as the new world formed out of shimmering sparks in the darkness. Sound began. Birds chirped. It was sunny but cool. He still remembered his other lives.
--- WSYI ---
